Saturday, November 5, 2011

Since I've made NO progress on the cammie purses since last weekend due to severe lack of energy in the evenings (busy week), this weekend's sewing time will be devoted to finishing those. But NEXT week, I'm sewing jeans for me.

I really wanted to buy some jeans for my Thanksgiving trip, but I've tried on about 20 pairs now in the last week and none are it. I'm losing hope. And time. Most of the RTWs fit everywhere except at the back waist, where they gape. I don't have a small waist in relation to my butt/hips, so who on earth DO these jeans fit?

I decided that if I had to rip out a waistband and topstitching down the center back and then re-do it to take in RTW jeans, I might as well make my own from the start and be reasonably assured they will fit when I'm done. It's also hard to find jeans without the un-strategic (in my case) fading and whiskers and I've got solid blue denim waiting in the stash closet.

I'm using the pattern I traced off from RTW and tweaked 7 years ago to make these:

I'm going to go with the bootcut leg like the burgundy pair, which was a change I made to the original "pattern" after making the green jeans. Those green jeans, if you remember, are the jeans I tried on at the start of my weight loss journey, which I couldn't even zip up. Now they are getting too big. Yay! Both of these jeans are straight out of the dryer so they haven't seen a full day of stretching yet. I can really only get one day of wear from either (but I'll probably still take them both on the trip).

I already dug through my pattern drawer to see if I could find the pattern and was relieved to know that I kept it. There's lots of notes on the pieces and in my reviews so I think I'm ready to just cut and sew. But for now, it's back to the purses and just dreaming of new jeans.

On a little bit of a sad note, I called to make a dentist appointment and found out that my wonderful dentist (and the person who really inspired me to change my eating habits) moved out of the area. Selfishly, I'm sad because I really wanted him to see how far I've come. Hopefully his former partners will be as good as he is. If not, I may be driving to Ocala (an hour north) for my next dental needs.

Parting Shot: Tyler's new medals. On the left, National Defense. On the right, War on Terrorism Service. They will make nice additions to his dress blues, which he'll be donning next Friday night for the Marine Corps Ball.Right now, he's on a plane flying back to Cherry Point NC from Yuma AZ. After 6+ weeks away from "home," he's ready to be back in his own barracks.

11 comments:

Hi Debbie - I've been lurking and following your progress. I think you are doing fantastic. I wanted to comment that I'm sure you don't like the faded thigh look but in your picture they looked nice on you. Still, I avoid them also. I also wanted to suggest Chico's if you have them near you. They are a smaller boutique (pricey, unless you use their coupons and find things on sale) and they cater more to women in the 40,50,60 age ranges. I resisted them for the longest time, but I've actually found some nice jeans there that fit nicely and are youthful looking without me looking like I'm trying to be 25 still. Worth investigating if you are interested - and they currently have a buy one, get one 50% off sale on jeans. I've learned too that I'll spend more $ on a really good pair of RTW jeans if they fit right and will last. And sadly, I haven't sewing anything in over a year. Too much going on and the sewing room is too cluttered to even approach. Keep up the good work and I love watching your progress.

That's the great thing about making your own jeans - you don't have to suffer that terrible dispiriting time trudging round stores trying on endless pairs of jeans that don't fit. Once you have got a basic well fitting jeans pattern you can just tweak the style and keep on making them in whatever colour you like. Both the green and burgundy pairs look great - this pattern is definitely working for you. Congratulations to Tyler - you must be so proud!

Hi Debbie, very cute outfits. You have a real talent for putting outfits together. I hope you won't mind me passing on a link here as I know you have put the Ooo Rah Saga to bed but I thought you may find this info on copyright I came across on the Sew Serendipidy blog interesting. http://blog.sewserendipity.com/search?updated-max=2009-05-06T15%3A32%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=7

FWIW, I read somewhere that since most jeans are made in China, Asian slopers are used and are based on Asian women whose posteriors are a bit flatter than U.S. womens butt. This is no aspersion cast by me here or judgement, just something I read that explains a lot about how jeans fit me too.

I am so impressed with everyone who sews jeans. I avoid pant sewing like the plague and this is just my desire to try again to make some that fit. I look forward to seeing the results. Being vertically challenged like you, and I have a need/want to slenderize/lengthen my look in jeans go with a boot cut, small flare. I think you will like the look.

The Birthday Ball! Boy that brings back memories, I remember all through my childhood my parents went to it every year till my dad retired. The only time they didn't go was when he was in Vietnam. The Marines in dress blues and the wives in gowns. My mother always made hers of course. It was the only time of the year when officers and enlisted were allowed to socialize I think. In those days the on-base clubs were segregated by rank.

Debbie, I know how you feel about the RTW pants. I spent two months trying on pants and finally found two pair. I found that if the pants fit in the hips that the waist area was several inches too big and I only have about 7" difference between hip/waist. I found that the Lee jean trousers worked sometimes. Good luck with the jeans.

Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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